MALL TO HELP VISITORS SHOP FOR KNOWLEDGE

Jerry LawrenceCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A group of Lake Villa elementary school pupils took an unusual field trip to the mall Wednesday afternoon, but this time window shopping didn't allow the children any opportunities to blow their milk money.

The children were among the first visitors to see the recently completed Lake County Mall of History Exhibit at the Lake County Museum in the Lakewood Forest Preserve.

"You can take just about anyone from anywhere and they will know how to find their way around a shopping mall," said museum director Janet Gallimore. Accordingly, Gallimore said, museum officials chose the mall format to display the museum's collections in a familiar context.

The Mall of History is part of a $2.2 million overhaul Lake County Forest Preserve officials approved in 1996. After more than three years of work, the updated museum is scheduled to officially reopen June 18.

The ease of navigation will help bring the Lake County museum into the information age with multimedia exhibits and computerized access to information, Gallimore said. "We really wanted to take away some of the barriers that are associated with history," she said.

In the mall, visitors will stroll along 11 storefronts, where different artifacts and personal stories related to historic events are on display.

In keeping with the mall theme, museum visitors will be issued "concept cards" that can be inserted into exhibits, causing an information screen to pop up or a video presentation to begin.

"With the choices the card creates, it's kind of spinning off of the shopping metaphor. You either get more information or you can use menu screens to select different information," Gallimore said.

The exhibit showcases topics ranging from the changing uses of land in Lake County to the area's connections to the entertainment industry. The first stop for museum visitors before the shopping mall will be the Vortex Theater, which will feature a simulated roller coaster ride through history. Gallimore said she expects the nine-minute presentation to be one of the biggest draws to the museum.

"It's going to be the coolest thing in Lake County. It's going to be the coolest thing in northern Illinois," she said.